LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The $2.3 million thoroughbred colt Sierra Leone can check a couple of important Kentucky Derby boxes on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Box 1 belongs to the Blue Grass Stakes. No winner of Keeneland Race Course’s Grade 1 Kentucky Derby prep race has continued on to win the roses since trainer Nick Zito’s Strike the Gold accomplished the feat way back in 1991.

Box 2 belongs to Chad Brown. The 45-year-old New York native is a four-time Eclipse Award winning trainer with 15 Breeders’ Cup victories and a pair of Preakness Stakes wins to his credit. He has never won the Kentucky Derby, however.

“It’s a hard race to win,” Brown said last week.

He’s come close twice. Among his seven Derby starters is Good Magic, who finished second to Triple Crown winner Justify in 2018, and Zandon, who finished third in the 2022 Derby won by 80-1 shot Rich Strike.

“When you come close and you’re walking back after the race, it does go through your mind if you’ll get back here again,” Brown said Saturday after Sierra Leone worked 5 furlongs in 1:00.1. “To get here and have two good horses with a chance, you feel very fortunate.”

Indeed, Brown has a pair of Derby 150 starters, including a Grade 3 winner who has been overshadowed by Sierra Leone, the likely second choice among Derby bettors behind Florida Derby winner Fierceness.

Owned by Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables, Domestic Product ran second in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes on Feb. 3 at Gulfstream. A month later, the son of Practical Joke won the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby on March 9.

Meanwhile, Sierra Leone brought a $2.3 million price tag at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Select Yearling Sale. The son of Gun Runner was purchased by White Birch Farm and M.V. Magnier and is owned by Peter M. Brant, Mrs. John Mangnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg and Brook T. Smith.

Should Seirra Leone win Saturday, he would be the first million-dollar yearling to win the Kentucky Derby since Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000. Fusaichi Pegasus brought $4 million in 2000.

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